Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-12-05
Agrltnltnral department.
Wedding out Poor Stock.

What kind of stock the farmer sells
has more to do with success or failure
than any other one item IN farm man
agement. We think most farmers
are learning to be more particular on
this point than formerly. 1t is nc
longer easy for the butchers or drov-
ers to ride through the country, pick
ing out the choicest animals, paying
a trifie more for them, and leaving
the farmer the scrubs. The reverse
of this is now so often the case that
the business of buying cattle and
other live stock in the east has to
some extent gone out of fashion. Ii
is easier to order dressed beef from
the far west, or bring the live stock
on cars and butcher them here.
One of the results of this is that
farmers are often left with animals
not worth keeping, and yet not easy
to sell. Unless a farmer is a pretty
close calculator this condition of
affairs may continue year after year,
until the stock has, as the saying is,
''more than eaten its head off" 1t
is easy to see that such animals must
be a heavy drawback upon successful
farming. No matter how good the
crops may be. whatever is fed to in
feriOT animals brings little return.
In olden times there was less compe-
tition and a larger margin of profit.
The poor stock did not matter so
much, for everybody had more or less
of it. With the improvements that
have now been made in domestic ami
mails, it is more necessary than ever
before to get and keep the best.
1t costs more than it used to. tho
not proportionately more than its
increased excellence warrants. The
farmers who complain that pedigreed
stock of good strains cost too much,
ignore its productiveness. This IS
especially true of cows for milk and
butter Many farmer can well af-
ford to sell off his three, four or half
a dozen ordinary animals and put
their price in one The progeny
from the one viii be worth for raising
more than from all that he previously
had.
He viii save expense of feeding
superfluous animals and extra labor
in care and milking. One thorough
bred cow may thus be the foundation
of a valuable herd.
1t is the same with all other farm
animals. No good farming can be
done with poor horses. II the team
is inefficient, the fact binders all farm
work and causes it TO be done at
loss. 1t is one of the disadvantages
of continuing long in the farming
business, that unless the farmer Is
pretty wide awake he viii soon find
his stables filed with animals past
their best service No one would
buy such horses to begin farming
with, but having them, the farmer
sees a yearly depreciation Of value
which he vainly attempts to recover.
A year ago a horse that might readily
have sold for $50 is now less salable
at 800. Two or three years later
he viii be an old horse, salable, per-
haps, for $50, yet really not worth
taking as a gift. When a horse from
age or infrmity goes below $50 or
800 in price, the man must be in
hard stress, indeed, who will depend
on him to do a seasons work on the
farm.
Yet it is such animals, not merely
Of horses. but Of other farm stock,
that poor beginners mainly start out
with. They take the leayings of the
rich, and nobody ever made money
by this method. The only exception
to this is in animals past their prime,
of good blood and not past breeding
age. Sometimes from such valuable
| young stock may be bred, and the
profit on the young animals more
than offsets the depreciation of the
old. As a rule, however, all animals
much past their prime should be dis
posed Of as soon as possible. Old
horses that have done faithful service
may be killed in some painless man
ner. rather than sold to be nl-treated
by strangers. killing without fatten=
ing, saving only the hide and using
the carcass as manure, may often be
a better means of qisposing Of super
anuated COWS than trying to winter
or even to fatten them. Usually,
however, some one will be found
willing to buy such animals and will
invariably pay more than they are
worth. This is one of the ways
whereby the poor increase their pow
erty, as has been the usual rule
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